Golden Age, October 2, 1929

Download: PDF — Golden Age, October 2, 1929

The Golden Age

A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND. COURAGE

• ■ ■ ;

imimimmmmmiiimiimmimmnmmmmsmmmiii

in this issue

FOSSILS

MACHINERY AND SUICIDE

ANOTHER CONSPIRACY

ON THE NEXT WAR

GLIMPSES OF SHANGHAI

LEADER OF THE PEOPLE tenth of a series of lectures on good government, by Judge Rutherford.

SHiimmmwmjmmmmmHmmmiimmmsmsmsmss

EVERY OTHER WEDNESDAY

5c a copy - $1.00 a year - Canada & Foreign $1.50

October 2, 192 9

Volume XI •> No. 262

e.

Contents

Labor and Economics

Labor-saving Machinery and Suicide .... Efficiency Experts Overdoing It .....

Social and Educational

Did You Notice These? ......... Men Gradually Getting- Sense .......

Avoid Traveling Frauds

Manufacturing and Mining

Big Business Conspires Against the People . .

Finance—Commerce—Tran sport avion

Financial Combinations in Billions ........

Political—Domestic and Foreign “Over There’’—and Over Herb ........

On the Next War..............

. Agriculture and Husbandry

Vegetables and Stone Meal .........

Science and Invention

Fossil Remains of Bygone Ages ..... Zine Meta Arsenite Wood Preservative . . .

Home and Health

MacFadden’s Brilliant Idea.......

Man the Omnivorous Animal (h).....

Cuts Down Your Appetite for Meat ....

One More for the Utu-SCEENTIFIC AMERICAN A Dead Fly in the Ointment .......

Travel and Miscellany

Items of Interest from Newfoundland Some Glimpses of Shanghai . . .

Religion and Philosophy Leader of the People ........... Bible Question and Answer..... . .

Argument Among Methodist Brethren . . . . The Children’s Oivn Eadio Story ......

Published every other Wednesday at 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., U. S. A., by WOODWORTH, KNORR & MARTIN

Copartners and Proprietors Address: 111 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N, A., U. S. A. CLAYTON J. WOODWORTH. . Editor ROBERT J. MARTIN.. Business Manager NATHAN H. KNORR.. Secretary and Treasurer

Five Cents a Cops—?1.00 a Year

Make Remittances to THE GOLDEN AGE

Notice to Subscribers: We do not, as a rule, send an acknowledgment of a renewal or a new subscription. A renewal blank (carrying notice of expiration) is sent with the journal one month before the subscription expires. Change of address, when requested, may be expected to appear on address label within one month.

Foreign Offices

British .34 Craven Terrace, London, W. 2, England

Canadian . . . ( ...... . 40 Irwin Avenue, Toronto 5, Ontario, Canada Australasian s g 7 Beresford Rd., Strathlield, Sydney, N, S. VV., Australia South Africa ............6 Lelie Street, Cape Town, South Africa

Entered as second-class matter at Brooklyn, N, Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879.

£i 3

The Golden Age

Volume XI Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, October 2, 1929 Number 262

Fossil Remains of Bygone Ages

MOST of us are living in the here and now; a few are living for the far-flung future, and really living in it, because all their thoughts are centered there; while a handful spend most of their time thinking about things of the remote past, fossils.

Fossil remains are preserved for mankind in five ways: by the preservation of bones, shells or leaf parts; by the formation of molds; by the formation of casts; by petrification of the thing, atom by atom; and, finally, rarely, by the preservation of the animal itself, unchanged.

Occasionally there are combinations of these. A mollusk dies. Its soft parts are replaced by sediment w’hich eventually turns to stone, a cast. Later the shell is replaced by stone and becomes a mold. Here are two fossils in one. Some of the most interesting plant fossils are those of fungi preserved in petrified wood, another case of two fossils in one.

Quiet waters, mud, sand, these are the conditions favorable to the manufacture of fossils, and the work is going on about us all the time. A leaf drops in fine mud. In due time all the plant tissue may have disappeared, or mineral matter may have taken its place, and yet the details of the leaf can be clearly seen. .

Tree trunks, turned into stone, have been found standing in the soil in which they once grew. Indeed there are petrified forests in Arizona, Nevada, and Egypt that are well worth a visit, and are seen by thousands annually.

Valuable fossils have been recovered from deep waters where they have lain undisturbed for ages. Indeed most fossil remains are of the marine type, due to the fact that in water decay is retarded. All mastodon remains have been found in swamps, where they became mired. No traces of mastodons have been found on high ground.

Rarely is there a fossil that shows by its location just how it came to be one; but it sometimes happens. In one place, in western Kansas, there was found in one spot the skeletons of nine peccaries, or American -wild pigs. Their heads were all pointing in the same direction. They had apparently been killed and buried by a sand-storm.

There is a locality in France that is noted for its fossils of leaves, fruits, seeds and flowers. The -waters are heavily loaded with lime, and fossilization occurs quickly after the article is dropped into them.

The reason why teeth are among the most common of fossils is that they are so hard and hence are more apt to petrify than other parts of the animal. A fossil may be any part of a plant or an animal, or the leaf print, or footprint, or even the worm burrow.

How Fossils Are Recovered

The derivation of the word “fossil” shows how these remains are recovered. The word means “dug out”. For generations this digging has been with pick and shovel; but newer methods are now in vogue. One of the greatest re-coverers of fossils is now the steam-shovel. Thrusting deeply into the earth and lifting tons of it at a time, the operators are apt at any time to pick up parts of a mastodon or some other extinct creature that once had a happy time on terra Anna but met with some accident and was buried before decay had wholly set in. The region west of Cleveland was thus made famous as a fossil-bearing district, great quantities of fossil fishes and sharks having been uncovered in a short time.

At Harbury, England, workmen excavating in a cement works uncovered a prehistoric monster thirty feet long and ten feet wide. The skeleton was in a state of perfect preservation.

In the “Bad Lands” of South Dakota experienced fossil hunters can tell by the composition and coloring of the cliffs which ones will contain fossils, and after the spring rains they climb along them until they find evidences of bone. From experience they can even tell what kinds of animals are likely to be represented.

In a coal mine near West Frankfort, Ill., tnere was found the fossilized trunk of a tree ten feet in circumference. The account of this tree says that “over the surface of the fossil are close-set pits, the scars left where the leaves grew. These ancient trees, the scientist says, had very few branches, and the leaves grew all over the trunk like the scales on a fish”.

In the petrified forest located forty miles from Tonopah, Nevada, there is one tree fifty feet high and fifteen feet in circumference that stands petrified where it once grew. More than a hundred others of various sizes are also standing similarly. The ground about is strewn with the fossilized bones of animals.

Once in a great while a human body is so acted upon by the elements as to be well preserved without any attempt being made to do so. Not long ago there wTas exhumed in Germany a perfectly preserved body buried 211 years ago; and at one time, in a Greek temple, there was found the body of a warrior buried 1,500 years ago, with his body in such a perfect state of preservation that the wounds which killed him were plainly visible.

Localities Famous for Fossils

One of the localities famous for fossils is in the city of Los Angeles, where thousands of skeletons of creatures that perished in the sticky asphalt have been recovered. Among the skeletons there found were the remains of three thousand giant wolves, two thousand sabertoothed tigers, sixty giant ground-sloths, and of other creatures a plenty, short-faced bears, lions, camels, bisons, peccaries, horses, tapirs, mastodons and mammoths.

Another famous locality, where what is now fine lithograph stone was once fine mud, is in Bavaria. In it are found many skeletons of creatures that must have presented a strange appearance, as flying reptiles and birds with teeth. In some instances signs of the deathstruggles of the entrapped creatures can be plainly seen.

In the marshes of Florida there have been recovered great quantities of bird bones. Most of these are of birds similar to those still flying

Brooklyn, N. Y.

over that state, but mingled with them are bones of mammoths, tapirs, ancient horses and giant armadillos which Florida has not seen for long.

In the little valley of Dura Den, Fifeshire, England, thousands of little fishes were buried alive under such circumstances that today the slabs of limestone in which they were entombed will sometimes show as many as a thousand of them on a single square yard. The black remains of the little fishes showT up like exquisite carvings.

In the wind-blown stretches of the Argentine are to be found the skeletons of many queerlooking creatures, not found elsewhere. Among these are the skeletons of immense sloth-like creatures not capable of traveling far, and it is noted by the discoverer that these early animals all seem to have died within about the same period. No human remains were among these bones.

Two policemen working in their spare time at a mound five hundred feet high, at Bakersfield, California, have dug out 140 sharks’ teeth from a hole ten feet square and five feet deep. It is conjectured that the mound is composed almost entirely of fossilized remains of prehistoric sea creatures.

In certain of the West Indian islands there are stretches of beach that have turned to limestone rock; but in the solid rock there are found shells that are still so fresh that the dried skin still clings to some of the shells.

Human Interest in Fossils

It is natural that the bones of creatures no longer found on earth would be of human interest. They have led to some strange ideas. Some suggested that these were freaks of nature or models discarded by the Creator. The truth is that these were all creatures that were perfectly adapted to conditions as they existed in the earth at the time when they.lived.

The Chinese take these prehistoric monsters seriously and literally. They grind the bones to powder and fry them with oil in a skillet. Or the powder is stirred with sour 'wine and the mixture is drunk off fresh, or it is left to settle and the clear liquid is drunk. These medicines, well known in every Chinese drug store, are considered as valuable in China as similar concoctions are in the Western world.

The Chinese guard their fossil beds with such care, handing them down from one generation to another, that it is hard for western scholars to get a chance to see the remains en situ; but the bones themselves can be had readily at the drug store. They are as helpful to westerners as they are to the Chinese!

The principal value of fossils is to disclose the wisdom of the Creator and to establish the truth of the record which He has left for the guidance of mankind. The Diplodocus, eighty-four feet long; the Stegosaurus, large as an elephant, and with an enormous plate of armor, and other even larger creatures discovered in Tanganyika and elsewhere, were perfectly adapted to life on the earth before the advent of man. They were built to live in an atmosphere highly charged with carbon, and their systems could endure the shocks of falling mud and rocks. The fossil reptile in Tanganyika is estimated to be 160 feet long. Such reptiles would be out of place how.

Millions of the fossil remains now in the earth were caused by the flood of Noah’s day. In northern Siberia an antelope was found embedded in the ice. It had green grass in its stomach, which proved that its death occurred suddenly while it was feeding. Similarly, a mastodon was found imbedded in ice with food between its teeth. Parts of this mastodon were eaten by dogs and even by human beings, showing that it had kept perfectly during the four thousand years it was in cold storage. Eventually the students of fossil remains must recognize the Flood, and the Creator who sent it; but oh, how they hate to do it I

ON PAGE 584, your issue of June 12, you say: “Every piece of labor-saving machinery put in operation is liable to cause a death by suicide. Human beings are slow to adapt themselves to changed conditions of employment.” There is no mystery about this. So long as we fix prices by a method that puts a price on what is not human work, will not every increase in efficiency add to consumers’ costs without adding anything to the vrorkers’ pay? A monetary system that compels some to work to pay for what is not human work necessarily compels others to receive human work without working in return. In other words, putting a price on what is not human work enables some to own for an income while it compels others to earn, but not get, that income. That is the relation of suicide to unemployment.

The following is the Equitist solution of these problems:

Freedom must be either equal or unequal; unequal freedom gives privileges to some and oppression to others: where people are equally free, some cannot rule others; and, therefore, the sole political function is to maintain equity. Equity is equal freedom— equality of opportunity to live free, natural lives.

We believe that this natural freedom can be most quickly and effectively attained by the maintenance of common ways—those portions of the earth that can not be held in the exclusive possession of some with-

Labor-saving Machinery and Suicide

(By W. E. Brokaw, Editor of The Equitist) out infringing the equal freedom of others—at public

expense (international at international expense; national at national expense; local, at local expense) ; that this expense should be apportioned equally per capita to all the adult inhabitants, because maintaining equal freedom necessarily benefits all equally.

We believe that, since this expense consists solely of human work, all public expenses should be met by the issue of checks, on the basis of one monetary unit (dollar in the U. S. A., pound in the British Commonwealth, franc in France, mark in Germany, etc.) for each hour of adult human work, and signed by the proper administrators, in some such form as this:

Manager..............................Bank: Charge to the account

of (name of municipal or other administration) $...........

in favor of............................................................

(signed by the proper official) ................................

That all common ways should be free for the equally free use of all persons to operate their own vehicles.

We believe that this will secure equal freedom in the use of the earth, provided the people adopt the same kind of checks in their private dealings, and, therefore, all other political arrangements be discarded.

Individuals should be free to meet their expenses by checks on their Mutual Banks, on the above named basis, in such form as:

Manager..............................Bank: Charge to my account

$..................in favor of.................................. (signed) ........................

When equitable exchange is adopted, people will form small group banks, limiting the size to a number that proves most satisfactory and elect a manager, by concurrent voting. Each member will deposit with, the manager a pledge, agreeing to redeem all his checks in work on the hour-unit basis, and to honor the cheeks of the other members. Persons forming partnerships will deposit part of their security pledges as firm pledges and part as personal pledges, for convenience in drawing checks. Each member will draw checks on his own group bank, instead of issuing personal notes. There will be no bank-note or other currency. Every adult, on coming of age, will register and deposit his pledge in such a bank.

Every individual and every public administration being thus able to have a bank account, all exchanges would be by means of checks and bookkeeping. Postal and other money order systems will be unnecessary. Thus a perfect credit system will entirely supersede the present semi-barter system.

When the system is adopted by more than one country an international clearing. house can be established through which international balances can be adjusted. Thus a worldwide hour-for-hour exchange system would be established.

Equitist Mutual Banking will be a simplification and purification of the present banking system, eliminating the predatory elements. It will be the death of usury.

The registry records of the Mutual Banks would furnish a complete and accurate, perpetual and inexpensive, census for apportionment of the expenses of the various political divisions, which would be according to the adult population. It would show the residence of each person from coming to age to death or emigration, and be a part of the regular expense of each Mutual Bank, which, of course, would be met by per capita apportionment among the members.

Equal freedom in the use of the earth will secure equal opportunity for all persons to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.

Getting a living, a competence, comforts and luxuries will then be as easy for one as for another: that is, it can be obtained by working the same length of time, thus permitting an equal amount of leisure time for each.

Acquiring these things will then become merely incidental to the attainment of intellectual satisfaction, and cease to be the aim and object of life. What is easily obtainable by everyone no one will struggle for. When all are free to use their own credit, through their own checking account, and to employ themselves as they choose, “money-getting” will cease, and excess possessions will have no attraction. Then those who are most worthy—who do the most for humanity or set the best examples of living—will be most esteemed, and greed will be unknown except in history.

With the Merit Incentive thus established—having supplanted the money incentive—-the individual desire of each person will be sufficient restraint to prevent infringement of the equal freedom of others. Hence, no repressive or punitive legislation will bo needed. There will be no occasion for any coercion other than that of reason—convincing by argument.

This means reducing political activities to a minimum. It means the end of human strife, and, consequently, of legislation. It puts politics with mathematics, as a completed science.

The consequence of this change from the dominance of the money (profit, or acquisitive) incentive to the dominance of the merit incentive involves the abandonment of injurious customs and habits of thought and life, and the adoption of rational ones. To most people these are undreamed-of possibilities. The vast majority of the work of the world today is injurious or unnecessary to human welfare. That alone takes far more time than all the really necessary work of human life and happiness requires.

What we propose, therefore, will, in brief:

Enable everyone to obtain all the land he can put to its best use, without the payment of either purchase price or rent, or any other consideration.

Enable everyone to use all the credit each needs, without the payment of interest, or any other consideration :

Fix the price of every product at the adult human work cost of production (which includes distribution), thus displacing “supply and demand” from their present abnormal function of price-fixing and restoring them to their true function of determining when, where, how and by whom all producing shall be done:

Make all natural resources free from price, and thus—•

Distribute Nature’s bounties equitably, distribute public expenses equitably, and thereby do away with rent, interest, profit and taxes:

Securing equality of opportunity to all natural persons, making “getting a living” easy for everyone, and replacing the present “love of money” with the desire to gain the respect and esteem of others by meriting it.

In order to introduce this into the present political structure of any country the laws should be so changed as to provide that every monetary unit (fraction or multiple therefore) paid out by the Government shall be issued only for direct and embodied adult human work, at the rate of one unit for each hour of such work involved therein; and every unit received by the Government for the payment of its expenses shall be issued on the same basis; that all Government expenses shall be met by cheeks issued in some such form as outlined above and shall be apportioned among the people in proportion to the sane adult population, and that all conflicting laws be thereby repealed; and that all individuals and firms shall be permitted to conduct their affairs on the same basis.

Did You Notice These?

Air Mail Now Open to Chile

THE air mail is now open from New York to Chile, via Panama and Ecuador. The first mails went through in nine days, which is pretty good in view of the fact that the fastest time by steamer is nineteen days.

Postal Deficit All Right

NO ONE need worry over the postal deficit.

Letters by air mail go at five cents for which the government pays as high as 20c for transporting them, but all this helps aviation, improves communication, and is worth the extra cost to the government in its training of men and its help to business.

Meals a la Carte on the Bremen

THE Bremen, the new ocean greyhound which clipped eight hours off the record of the Mauretania, has started something new in her arrangement and passengers may get their meals a la carte, order what they like and pay for what they order. They will thus not have to pay for heavy meals which they do not consume and without which they are better off.

Germany Alone Benefited

Major General Tasker H. Bliss, one of the signers of the treaty of Versailles, declares that not the Allies, but Germany, benefited by the Versailles treaty, because it forced demilitarization upon her and compelled her to use her funds and her labor for other than military purposes. Good for General Bliss 1

Fifty-eight Millions for Bribery

FIFTY-EIGHT million dollars annually for bribery is the nice little sum which the Power Trust has been spending to make itself solid with the American people. Of this, thirty millions were expended by the trust itself, and twenty-eight millions by the individual power companies. Debauchery of schools, of editors, and of the public mind generally, by propaganda against public ownership, together with intimidation and corruption of public servants in legislatures and elsewhere, now stands plainly revealed in all its hideousness, and the Power Trust is now in position where they can ask Tweed’s question, “What are you going to do about it?” The half of the rascality of this bunch has never been told.

Thirty-two Million Autos

OF THE thirty-two million autos in the world, almost twenty-five million are in the United States. Spitzbergen and Bermuda manage to get along with one car apiece. England, France and Canada have a million cars each.

Automobile Fatalities in England

IN ENGLAND last year there was one automobile fatality to every 118 automobiles; while in the United States, with far more congested streets, there was only one automobile fatality to every 1,121 automobiles. This is a record of almost ten to one in favor of the United States driver.

Fifteen Percent Deaf

RECENT surveys indicate that about fifteen percent of the people of the United States are hard of hearing, which means that some fifteen million people are handicapped in this ■way. Among these are three million children in the elementary schools. Knowledge of lip reading is helping some of these.

Mine Fires at Pawnee and Carbondale

MINE fires have been burning for forty-five years at Pawnee, Ohio, and for almost twice that long at Carbondale, Pa. The fires at Pawnee are estimated to have consumed 700,000,000 tons of coal. They were started by desperate strikers in the year 1884, and all attempts to quench them have failed.

Cassidy, the Longshoreman

William Cassidy, the longshoreman, found his work very profitable, under the Volstead Act. When the Reverend Kiernan, chaplain of the Holy Name Society, sang mass at his funeral, there were fifty automobile loads of mourners, eleven carloads of floral pieces, and a bronze, silver-trimmed coffin which cost $5,000. Those who have been accustomed to getting their beer at Cassidy’s speakeasy will now have to patronize some other of the 32,000 which remain open; that is, they will unless some of Cassidy’s friends finance the old place for the widow. Cassidy was shot and killed by some hijacker or other supporter of the Volstead Act. Mr. Cassidy stood high in the beer-running circles of New York city.

Financial Combinations in Billions

TpINANCIAL combinations reaching into the •*- billions, and in almost every department of industry, are the order of the day. Billiondollar banks, billion-dollar railroad systems, billion-dollar power combinations, all these are the order of the day. The giants are rapidly reaching around now to gather up all that is left. Colossal changes have come in the last six months.

Constructive Versus Destructive Work

WORKER writing to the editor of Labor wants to know, if the government was within its rights twelve years ago in spending $24,000,000,000 for destructive purposes and ordering 4,000,000 citizens at the risk of life to obey its demands, why it would not be within its rights now to spend an equal amount for constructive work and reemploy the 4,000,000 who are now idle.

154,000 Mentally Defective Veterans

Watson B. Miller, expert in mental diseases, declares that by the time they are 35, and now that will be soon, there will be 154,000 veterans of the World War who will have developed serious mental disease. At present there are thousands of these who are sleeping on the floors of state hospitals, and some are even in custody of the jails because no provision has yet been made for their care in government hospitals.

Race Riots on Eastern Shore

EFEBRING to the race riots on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Dr. Ainslie, a

Baltimore pastor, wants to know of what good are the churches in the towns in which the riots occur. We -would rather Dr. Ainslie would answer this question himself, for, to be frank about it, we must say honestly that we do not know that they are of any good at all. Dr. Ainslie goes on to say: “The United States Government pays the churches of this country more than $2,000,000,000 annually to check crime and set up moral standards. By this I mean that all church properties are exempt from taxation to that extent. It is a solemn covenant between the Government and the churches. Every race riot indicates that the churches have failed to keep their part of the covenant.”

Ability of African Natives

r. Mary Cushman, medical missionary to Africa, in an address at Northfield, denied reports that African men are lazy, and declared that in that land if you give a child a tool he will build himself a shelter, where an American boy would not have the slightest idea as to what to do. She declares that never were the natives so poorly fed as at present, and never was their outlook so dark.

Rural Mail Carriers’ Gratitude

RATEFUL to the fourth assistant postmaster, H. H. Billany, for showing humanity as well as intelligence in his management of this great service, thirty-five thousand rural carriers contributed each a dime to the purchase of a seven-passenger car, on the occasion of Mr. Billany’s retirement. What a fine tribute, and what an incentive to all men to deal kindly and justly!

Shriner Convention at Los Angeles

THE Shriner convention at Los Angeles left x behind it 98 gross of gin bottles, 236 gross of ginger ale bottles, 63 gross of Scotch whisky bottles, 22 gross of champagne bottles, 42 gross of fancy wine bottles, 182 gross of miscellaneous pint bottles, 49 gross of beer bottles, and 33 gross of tonic bottles. That makes 104,400 bottles, all told. The trip across Arizona or Nevada must have made the Shriners thirsty.

$21 Tribute a Family a Year

ABOR points out that in Ontario 86.8 percent of the current used for domestic purposes costs the consumer 1.9 cents a kilowatt hour, or less. Stated otherwise, the Canadians pay $9.18 a year a family for their domesticcurrent, while Americans pay $30.10. Stated still another ivay, it means that the Americans are such fools as to pay the Power Trust an average tribute of $20.92 a year, with which amount the Trust can and does debauch schools, newspapers, legislatures, etc., and fastens its talons permanently on the family pocketbook. Every time you see an article against public ownership of public utilities you may figure that it was paid for out of the $20.92 robbed from you last year by the highwaymen that are doing the same thing this year and intend to do it next year and ever more, time -without end.

Baby Austin Cars Coming

THE Baby Austin automobile, a third smaller than any American car now made, will soon be as familiar on the streets of America as it is now on British streets. The American plant of this British concern will be located at Butler, Pa., and operated by Americans throughout. The car will sell for less than $500, will have a speed of 80 miles an hour, and is expected to run 45 to 50 miles on one gallon of gasoline.

Legal Motor Speeds

TN RHODE ISLAND posters along the routes say, “If you can not make thirty-five miles an hour keep off the road.” In a western state a magistrate has just fined a motorist for running only fifteen miles an hour and thus impeding traffic. In Prague, Bohemia, it is against the law to run more than nine miles an hour. The law is obeyed and there are no casualties. Some time the proper speed will be determined and enforced everywhere.

Efficiency Experts Overdoing It

THE efficiency experts have been overdoing it in Southern cotton mills, and it is generally admitted that their inhuman plans of getting out of every worker every ounce of nervous energy and every moment of his time, without paying him anything more for his work, constitutes the real grievance of the cotton workers and accounts for the labor disorders nowT so prevalent in that part of the world. Some of the mills, disgusted at the turn of affairs, have discharged their efficiency experts and gone back to treating their workers like human beings.

Eleven Thousand Lawbreakers

NEW YORK state’s commissioner of labor declares that there are eleven thousand employers of labor in the state who are deliberately disobeying the law which requires them to insure their workers. Any one of these employers would doubtless be quick to call upon the state for help if they thought there was any danger of their employees’ doing anything illegal against the firm. They seem to think the law works in only one direction, and often, indeed, it is only too true that such is the case. Miss Perkins, the commissioner, has already had several employers sent to jail for ignoring the law.

MacFadden’s Brilliant Idea

HD HAT was a brilliant idea of Bernarr Mac-Fadden’s when he sent a perfectly sound, physician-certified, healthy young man to twenty-six highly ethical licensed physicians of New York for a physical examination. The 100-per-cent healthy young man came back with the reports from those physicians that he was suffering from twenty-six different diseases, and he had in his possession twenty-six different prescriptions for the treatment of the imaginary diseases.

Pajamas Legal for Street Wear

A COURAGEOUS North Carolina editor wore a suit of pale blue rayon pajamas on the street during the hottest part of dog days this season, and the chief of police arrested him. Probably the chief was jealous of the man, of his courage, and of his coolness. Anyway, the thing came up before the mayor, and that dignitary showed that he was made of the right mettle. He said that he had scoured the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of North Carolina, and so far as he could discover there was nothing in either instrument that would prevent a man who had the courage from wearing his pajamas on the street in hot weather; and moreover (and this must have been discouraging to his chief of police) he declared that if he had the courage he would do so himself.

Men Gradually Getting Sense

TT SEEMS hard to believe it, but the men, some of them, are gradually getting some sense as to how to dress. Dr. Gallardo, former trainer of New York police, during the hot wzeather this summer has worn BVD’s, socks, sandals, sport shirt, short canvas pants, a ventilated helmet, and nothing more. Dr. Darlington, famous physician, Tammanyite, has been going around dressed in BVD’s, socks, sandals, trousers with suspenders and a thin coat, but no shirt. One thing is certain: either the shirt or the coat must go; and the long pants must give way to short ones, with bare shins. Why not? Dr. Darlington, defending himself, says, “It formerly took the wool from four sheep to clothe a woman; it now takes one silkworm.” He probably stretched that a little, but it shows that the men are learning and that there is hope of real intelligence breaking in on them after a few years more of deep thought on this clothing proposition. Meantime the women are all laughing at us.

The Check upon Official Tyranny

STUNG- by the charge of the American Civil Liberties Union that there is more violation of civil rights in Pennsylvania than in all other states combined, the Philadelphia Record refers to the dirty frame-up of Mooney and Billings in California and other unhappy cases of injustice in Ohio, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New York and Washington, D. C., and then adds very truthfully: “There is no check upon official tyranny but the insistence of a free-minded people on liberal government.” Tyrants without heart, soul or conscience are desperately afraid of the loud squawk which may arouse the whole barnyard and bring ruin instanter.

Henry Ford on Finance

Henry Ford points out that now when the government wants a $30,000,000 public improvement it spends that amount for the improvement and $36,000,000 more in interest which it pays to somebody else. Ford wants to know why, when the government wants a $30,-000,000 improvement, it can not go ahead and print enough $20 bills and $10 bills to pay for* the job, then put the plant in operation and out of its earnings retire the entire $30,000,000 without paying a cent of interest to anybody. There is no answer to Henry’s question, but there are 36,000,000 reasons why it will not be adopted.

Worth as Much as Decoy Ducks

IT SEEM^l. that the real reason the United States is' to build fifteen tremendously expensive cruisers is not because the cruisers would be of any value to the people of the country for whom they are to be built, but because Big Business has billions tied up in shipyards and wishes to have a profit on the money. On this subject Hon. Gerald P. Nye said:

Those forces which are engaged at this time in encouraging- us. to build a number of cruisers, are encouraging us to expenditures for things which, in time of war, would not be worth fifteen decoy ducks. If we will be fair with ourselves, the next war will make a cruiser or a battleship worth just as much as a decoy duck. But in the interests of the shipbuilders we must proceed with the shipbuilding program. .That seems to be the theory.

The Official Car Graft

TpOR more than a generation it has been ille-gal for railroads to haul the private cars of other railroads over their lines without requiring the full payment for the car and all in it, yet the practice has never been discontinued. The Interstate Commerce Commission has now denounced this once more. Multitudes of business men and pleasure-seekers have been taking advantage of their acquaintance with officers of railways to get around the country for nothing; panhandlers, bums, tramps, in fine clothing.

All the Boys Need Is Guidance

A FIRE in the House of Refuge, where 490 boys 12 to 20 years of age are prisoners of our civilization, breaks out in the cupola of one of their prisons, eight stories above the ground. With alacrity, but in perfect order, these boys climb a narrow stairway, make proper hose connections and put out the fire twenty minutes before the fire companies arrive. Looks as if it might be a good investment to take some of the opportunities away from the Power Trust and invest American boys with them.

When Did He Find It Out?

"D everend Wagner, a Methodist pastor in New York city, on learning that Russia and China were on the brink of war, made the declaration that war is murder. So it is. But during the World War the Methodist church was blatantly and openly for wTar, and it was murder then as much as it is now. The point is, When did the Reverend AVagner find out the truth on this subject? If he was silent on the subject in 1917 he should be silent now. Nobody wants to listen to a man who confesses he was for murder in 1917 but is not for it now.

Zinc Meta Arsenite Wood Preservative

O’" INC Meta Arsenite, a new wood preserva-tive, penetrates the fibres of the wood, and yet can not be leached out by rain or other weather influences. It is destructive to all insects and organisms of decay, and wood treated with it can be painted as readily as if untreated. The economic value of this wood preservative can hardly be overestimated. If it will do what is claimed for it, it means the preservation of our forests and watersheds, because railroad ties and other timbers exposed to the weather can be preserved much longer than at present.

Items of Interest from Newfoundland By Andrew Horwood

NEWFOUNDLAND experienced one of the mildest winters in its history. In St. John’s and vicinity motor traffic was still in full sway when midwinter was well past. The thermometer had not yet dropped to zero, and at noon, February 9, it stood 40 degrees above. This may surprise some of our nearby neighbors, who think we live in the land of perpetual frost and snow. Winters seem to have lost their sting.

It is many years since the white blanket of snow was spread about the first week in December and lifted again some time in April by the returning sun and warm rain. Early in February we had a three days’ northeaster, and it did not bring either frost or snow. The question is continually being asked, in the press and out, “Is the climate changing?” Everybody knows it is; but why?

The late fall brought a complete change in. the personnel of the government, to the surprise of people who still credit old methods. The outgoing government had by far the greater part of the weight of the press, and no small share of the pulpit. With one or two exceptions the “business” community threw all its strength in their favor. They had unlimited “campaign funds” and, to use their own words, “a moral issue”; and, with all their advantages, they lost. The winners had scarcely sufficient campaign funds to pay for telegrams. They issued no written manifesto. Their candidates were men .whose combined wealth would not make one fortune ; but they caught the ear of the people, and the votes too.

The outstanding feature of the political campaign was the introduction of a new method of making people listen to propaganda. People who could not or would not read the papers, people who scorned to attend a political meeting, were induced to give ear to a phonographic record, which had been made for the purpose, a few well chosen words by the leader calculated to stir the people, and some free advertising by the hostile press, and nothing could stem the tide of the record.

The people are enjoying a measure of prosperity this year. Cod-fishing is the staple industry, and prices were for the first time in years such as would give the toiler a fair return for his labor. If fishing is good, trade is bright. If trade is bright, there is work to do, and so the whole country benefits by the producer’s being paid for his work. Wonder why everybody doesn’t know that?

More and more the attention of capital is being attracted to this “poor little country” which happens to hold in its bosom vast stores of minerals, sufficient to make every individual within it a millionaire, provided, of course, that no one got any of the other fellow’s share.

Paper manufacturing, is going on at a great pace, and is a real boon to the country. The vast forests of spruce are being turned into newsprint at a marvelous rate. The International Paper Company is making the Humber river hum; while the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company is exploiting the exploits. The new premier has promised to put a gang on the “Gander”, making paper before the end of his. term. If people quit reading the papers it will hit Newfoundland hard.

Before this is read the annual slaughter wall be taking place on the ice that the Arctic current brings with it in March. Each year from one hundred thousand to three hundred thousand seals are brought in. The men who slay them have had one-third of the fat for their share, while the ship owners and outfitters have had two-thirds of the fat and all the skin. Just now the man who jumps from one pan of ice to another on the ocean, in chase of a dog hood, thinks he ought to have part of the skin as well as one third of the fat, particularly when he is instructed to take all the young he can get, as the skin is more valuable on the young than on the old seals. However, the people in Newfoundland are “no strikers”, and it is not likely there will be any scarcity of hardy fishermen to don oilskins, rope and gaff, to reap the harvest of the frozen ocean.

It seems a pity that some radio broadcasting company does not take advantage of the geographical position of Newfoundland. There is one small station here that operates regularly; and that is controlled by a church organization. With any kind of a decent receiving set one can tune in on Europe or America at pleasure, with good results. During the war the British navy used St. John’s as a wireless center. It seems to us that soon this little island will have an important place in the radio world; and who knows but the Truth will be told over the air from Newfoundland that will awake both the Old and the New World.

Some Glimpses of Shanghai By T. A. H. Claris

ALMOST every morning (the Palace Hotel being near the waterfront) I am awakened by the song, “Heigh-ho; ho-ho; heigh-ho . . A which is the sort of chant of the coolie laborers. Whether they do it to keep step with each other, whether to warn passers-by, or whether to lighten their burdens, I have not found out. They carry a bamboo poljg which rests on the shoulders (as you will have seen from pictures), on which they carry loads. It seems to me an excellent way. In our countries the men just take a heavy case and roll it over and over on the ground, sometimes banging it about a good deal; whereas the Chinese just sling it on bamboo and transport it noiselessly. They seem to be able to transport almost anything by this method. And work! New York, with all its bluff and pretense, simply isn’t in it. These people work very hard, and seem to enjoy it. They get next to nothing by way of pay, but all the same they seem happy enough.

I met a small boy in our building here the other day, a youngster of about seven. He was trudging along with a bamboo pole with a couple of small bags of sand, and he was singing “Heigh-ho; ho-ho ...” I suppose he thought he was what is called in vulgar parlance a “regular guy”! Even Mrs. Murphy’s baby has got the idea, and sings “Heigh-ho ...”

It is most interesting to stand on the bridge and watch the life on the junks passing by. Each one has its family; and they all take a turn on the big oar. They have a very ingenious method of working it. The principal method of propulsion is with a bamboo pole (nothing is done here without bamboo) which is pushed down to the bottom of the water. The small kids on the junks and sampans know enough to say “Throw money”, or if they don’t they make a sign which means the same thing. It’s great fun to chuck ’em coppers. There are lots of beggars, of course; and one can do a tremendous lot of “charity” at a very small cost. There is “big” money and “small” money here. For instance, to pay a Mexican dollar with “small” money, one has to give six twenty-cent pieces and some coppers. The consequence is that one’s pockets soon get weighted down with a pound of copper. I usually give it away immediately to the next beggar I see; and he appreciates it, no matter how little it is. Twenty-six coppers (the size of a British penny) go to make up ten cents! I don’t know why copper is so depreciated. I remember one night running across a poor old shriveled-up woman sitting on the sidewalk. She did not see me coming, but I suddenly dropped about twenty coppers into her hand, and oh my! it must have been a golden rain for her, she was so delighted. And the whole lot cost me less than ten cents Mexican, i.e., less than five cents gold!! In the interior of China they have still smaller coinage (the cash); and so you can imagine how small their dealings are.

Some of the women here wear trousers, and some of them wear skirts; some of the men wear trousers, and some of them trousers with a sort of overall which gives the appearance of a skirt. In the cold weather they wear padded clothing, which makes them look very plump, something like a sort of walking upholstered armchair!

The central streets have a serious traffic problem. The sidewalks are apparently about six inches and three-quarters wide (or so it seems); and what with ricksha coolies, autos, etc., one has to be very careful. When I go out into the “suburbs” I usually take a ricksha through the crowded part (mostly Chinese), and then walk. The Chinese districts, of course, are most picturesque, huge signs with Chinese lettering giving quite a grotesque appearance. The Chinese are like flies, all over the place; withal they are a very decent bunch, good-mannered and polite. Nevertheless, one likes to get away from them at times, but this is quite difficult. Shanghai is like a huge beehive.

On the night when our tender was accepted, I was invited to a dinner at the house of an important merchant here, all of our local associates, including the head of the most important British house (Sassoon & Co.), being present, as well as the manager of Mitsui & Co., the Japanese bankers who are in with us on the deal. The affair passed off very well, and I much enjoyed it. The wives of two Japanese were present, and I must say that I did admire them so much in their picturesque native costumes; I could hardly keep my eyes off them. They are certainly dainty little people. I was talking to the manager of the cable company the other day at lunch, and asked him (he having lived in Japan) if the Japanese ladies are as modest and demure as they look. He said they are. and

that they are taught that their mission is “to look after the men”, which seems quite all right to me. From what I saw of Japan (and. I hope to see it again), I fancy I would much rather live there than here. Shanghai is all right, but it’s very limited—limited to the international and French settlement boundaries; that is, there is not too much freedom. However, we took an automobile drive one Sunday afternoon right out into China proper, away outside the settlement boundaries. The country is very nice, and apparently well cultivated. Along the roadway one sees little hills which are tombs. Sometimes they are built of mud, like a sort of dog kennel. I should imagine they’re very comfortable, provided the rain does not come in through a leaky roof! We saw some Chinese churches, or whatever they call them. I am told that most of the people don’t know what they are, whether Buddhists, Shin-toists, or what, and that if they don’t get the right result from one god they chuck him and appeal to another, until they get what they want.

I forgot to say that the coolie class, and others here, work seven days a week: Sunday makes no difference to them: it’s just one long, unending toil. Of course those in the foreign establishments do not. However, they make up for it at New Year (in February), when they take a solid two weeks off. The Nanking Government has been trying to put an end even to that. It seems to me that what these people want (I mean the poorer classes) is: First, better food (the stuff they eat is atrocious-looking stuff); second, a little more money to spend; and third, a little more time for rest. However, as I have said, in spite of it all, they seem very cheerful, and even happy. Certainly they are diligent and industrious. I should like to be allpowerful and give them those three things right away; and I am sure they would appreciate them, for, in spite of what some people say about them, I feel that they are human people, people one would like to help and raise up a bit. One sees women, and girls, pushing on the big oar on the junks; they never seem to idle. It might be said that it is cruel. I can’t see it, for it is not excessively hard work; and they must be strong in a way that would put the average city girl to shame. The Chinese is an excellent cook in preparing meals such as we like to have, but the stuff they themselves eat is appalling-looking muck. I fancy I could use a chopstick myself now, although I have never fried. Of course, for soup it would be impossible; but their diet is mostly rice, chopped meat and vegetables. They use little round bowls which they hold up to their mouths, and just shovel the stuff into their faces as fast as they can.

The other day, walking along, there suddenly presented himself before my pathway a small boy juggling ferocious-looking knives in a very expert manner. He had three of them which he managed to throw in the air and catch, all while he was walking backward. He certainly was an expert. A few coins soon sent him away smiling. However, he has turned up two or three times more, and is getting to be a nuisance.

Shanghai is called 'the Paris of the East’. People from the Philippines and other places come here to “have a good time”, which seems to consist mostly in being up all night at parties and drinking cocktails without limit. In general, the Shanghai people are a pleasureloving lot.

My observation in the hotel shows that one cocktail is hardly ever drunk; it is usually three oi’ four. Even the young girls take them regularly; and I think there’s hardly a woman in the hotel who does not smoke. Shanghai is a place that seems to be perfectly oblivious to the serious things of life; it devotes itself, when not at work, to a round of parties, theaters, etc.

Out in the river are a score or so foreign warships, including the big U. S. S. “Pittsburgh”. A large British ship has just left. There are French, Italian, and Japanese boats. Sailors are all over the place; on shore, foreign troops are everywhere. One day I saw six “tanks” (French) passing through the streets. Another day, a whole British regiment marched past the hotel. I had not seen a British regiment march for a very long time, and it was certainly a most imposing sight. But behind it all, the phase that is not spoken of, is legalized and organized murder which has brought sorrow to millions! Shanghai, therefore, is pretty well guarded. It is the “plum” of cities in China, and no doubt the Chinese would like to see the foreigner out of it. However, the foreigner has made Shanghai and its trade what they are; and I don’t imagine the powers will surrender it without a struggle—certainly not until China gets a stable government, if it ever does. Away in the interior provinces of China, millions at this time are starving, and it looks as if a huge calamity were almost unavoidable; for it seems that as soon as the people get any money, the military leaders tax it out of them for their armies. It looks as though nothing effective could be done until the new kingdom is established in the earth, which will put militarists and other oppressors of the people where they belong and yill bring order out of chaos.

On the boat I talked to an American lady coming out as doctor in a Chinese women’s hospital here. I invited her to dinner at the hotel, and in return she invited me to tea with the other lady doctors at the hospital. She has necessarily to learn Chinese, and tells me that she does not find it too difficult. On the other hand, I was talking to a young American lawyer who has been here some time, and he told me he W’ould never do it again, it was so difficult. It is unlike most languages, in that one has to learn not only the signs, or ideographs (the written language), and what they stand for, but also the spoken language, in addition to which there is the linking together of the written and spoken language, which has to be taught to one, as of course the signs themselves do not give any idea of pronunciation as do our Roman characters. It seems that the sign language is built around a “root” or “stem”, and that, in reading, one has to pick out the root and then add to or take from it according to the rest of the structure. In this it resembles, to an extent, our own languages. Take, for instance, Spanish, using the verb “tener” (to have). The root here is “ten", and the different parts of the verb are “tengo, tengas, tenga; tengamos, tengais, ten-gan; tiene, tienen”, etc., etc., some being irregular. Chinese written language is read down the column instead of across. There are five “tones”, the same word having quite different meanings in each “tone”. It is entirely monosyllabic. A Chinese from Canton will not understand another from Peking. Most foreigners learn Mandarin, which is the official language. In names of persons, the surname usually comes first; e.g., “Li Ti Sing,” “Li” being the surname; in other words “Smith, George, John”. When a person or a firm starts dealing with the people here, it is necessary to acquire a Chinese name. This is a matter for some little study by a literary man, as, of course, an English name can not be translated into Chinese. An entirely new name has to be devised suited to the person or firm, their characteristics, etc.

I have not made any attempt to pick up any Chinese, as I am not likely to have any use for it, and it is a serious study. HowTever, I should much like to learn it, merely as a matter of interest.

“To lose face” is quite an expression here, which means to lose prestige. We talk about “saving one’s face”; but if you “lose face”, you lose dignity or standing, as it -were; in other words you get a “dirty deal”, apply it whichever way it suits best. “Can do” and “No can do” are useful appendages of “pidgin English”.

The following is a rather good description of Shanghai, which appeared in the Montreal Gazette just before I left New York:

SHANGHAI THE UNIQUE

Shanghai, the great seaport of Kiangsu province, China, lies on the edge of a low, flat and intensively cultivated area traversed by water courses. The native quarter was made a city in 1360, and is surrounded by Avails three and a quarter miles in circumference, in which, there are six gates. The European quarter, commercial Shanghai, is north of the native city, and occupies over nine square miles. The American quarter is within the British municipality. At present, Shanghai is in a transition period following the recent Avar.

The Shanghai of today is a breath-taking spectacle. Nowhere else in the world can you sec two million people huddled together more closely, moving about more constantly, wasting money more lavishly, serving industry more slavishly, chasing pleasure more frantically. It is a city worthy of the study of economist, philosopher and psychologist: a happy hunting-ground for the theorists, a marvelous demonstration of the effects of the contact betAveen East and West.

The traffic problem alone is one that baffles experts. In the narrow streets, tramears thunder, with a constant clanging of warning bells, reinforced by the voice of the driver when conditions get very mixed. Great busses turn and squirm around impossible corners; motors dash along past standing tramcars, grazing the crowds who choose to walk in the gutters, bringing up with a screech of four-wheeled brakes as a ricksha coolie suddenly dashes across the road in front of them to pick up a ten-cent fare.

Rickshas trail around everywhere, the men searching the crowds anxiously for fares. Motor trucks of all sizes and descriptions roar through the crowds. Through all this mixture of fast and slow traffic the barroAV men ply, with straining muscles and tense faces striving to balance and push their huge loads on their onc-Avheeled barrows. It takes either nerve or ignorance to trust oneself to a ricksha in all this excitement and muddle; one feels oneself at the mercy of a half-fed countryman with only the vaguest notion of traffic regulations and a perennially hopeful disposition, whose previous experience of fast traffic has probably been a water buffalo at a lumbering trot. And all this is complicated by tremendous crowds of pedestrians, who get pushed off the narrow footpaths into the road, and who amble contentedly across the streets looking neither way before crossing.

The composition of the crowds in the streets is very interesting. There are obviously many Germans, their fair skins and hair very noticeable among the darkhaired Chinese. There are also many more Russians than formerly, especially women. There was a big influx of these from the North last year, when troops began to pour into Shanghai. British and Americans are for the most part in motor cars; they represent the prosperous and settled part of the foreign community. Plenty of Sikhs are in the streets, most of them employed as police or watchmen. A few Parsee women belonging to the small business Parsee group give a note of colour in their goldedged saris. Japanese men there are in plenty; but women are seen mostly in the Japanese quarter where they do their shopping, centred around the large Japanese school, where one may sometimes watch a hundred or so small boys being put through their drill, equipped with toy rifles.

But the chief interest of Shanghai is its Chinese population. Shanghai is the gay city, the Paris of China, the setter of fashion, the shopping centre, the great silk market, the place of gorgeous theatres, grand restaurants, the most fascinating sing-song girls, the most numerous dance halls, the biggest greyhound courses, full of all sorts of Western and Chinese luxuries, and above all, the place of safety from bandits, taxation, wars, and other of China’s perennial worries. Everyone with money to spend comes to Shanghai. Government officials succumb to its lures and have to be coerced back to work. It is a glittering and feverish city with a genuine Lorelei attraction for young China. Its fashionable women must account for half the lipstick consumption of the world. A very potent cerise seems to be the correct shade at present. Well-applied rouge of every shade—the art of make-up is old in China—helps to hide the pallor that results from frequent all-night sessions at mahjong, which is more popular than ever, and played for enormous stakes. A new kind of male flapper has recently made its appearance in Shanghai. It wears a very bright blue suit, with gay tan shoes, carries a swagger cane, sports a large and curly-brimmed hat, and has what can be described as a dead face. Deadly pale, unanimated, with lack-lustre eyes and a dropped chin, these boys present a truly dreadful spectacle. They are literally worn out with dancing all night and working all day. Dancing is very new and intoxicating. Within the last eighteen months, dozens of dancing halls have opened all over the city where rows of young girls wait to be hired as partners. A dollars’ worth of tickets entitles the holder to six dances, and his partners certainly earn their small percentage. They dance from nine o ’clock to daylight with almost no intervals. Probably every one of these girls has a mother who never spoke to a man outside of her immediate family before her marriage.

…